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As more designs are using smaller components with surface-mount pads, Surface-mount Technology (SMT) soldering defects can mount and impact yields due to various design and manufacturing problems. These problems may have been minor and had a negligible effect on yields in the past, but they can cause rework costs to mount quickly and should be avoided. Here is a basic SMT defect list you can avoid during design and assembly. Bridging Between...

In Part 1 of my article I outlined the various test structures that can and should be incorporated into any given PCB design. Included in this was a description of how they are built, where they are located and how they are used to ensure PCB structural and performance integrity. As speeds have increased and designs have become much more complex, test structures have become a necessity rather than features that can be added indiscriminately...

An important part of any high-speed design is making sure it can be tested successfully during manufacture and operation. Since these tests are performed significantly downstream from the PCB design process, they are not often properly and thoroughly accounted for as part of this process. This article will address two important aspects of the design for test process: creating test structures (aka test point connections) within the board, and de...

In a perfect world, a box and enclosure are designed, and then printed circuit boards or flexible circuits are designed to fit within that box perfectly, meeting all the electrical and mechanical requirements of the project. Sadly, most of us don’t get to work in that perfect world and at times must deal with challenges to that original plan. Things don’t always work as expected. Sometimes that is because something obvious was missed., Often it...

Chirp sends data seamlessly over soundwaves (Image source: chirp.io) According to the Wikipedia, a chirp is a signal in which the frequency increases (up-chirp) or decreases (down-chirp) with time. It’s also the name of a rather interesting company, whose website can be found at Chirp.io I don’t know about you, but – until recently -- if someone were to ask me how to transmit data from one device to another, my knee-jerk reaction would have...

In this volatile business of ours, we can ill afford to rest on our laurels, even to pause in retrospect. Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future. - Walt Disney I stood at the large hospital window looking out at the early evening sky. I could see several stories below just a small section of the nearby freeway. As typical for the late hour, the traffic was at a standstill, with its...

One of the things I really love about Altium Designer® is how many shortcuts there are, and how customisable they are. A while ago in my database library’s chat channel, there was a really good discussion about shortcuts and how each of us customises his or her menus to be able to draw schematics and layout boards as quickly and efficiently as possible. Many of us use and love similar shortcuts, but there were enough interesting use cases that...

Microsoft doubles up with its dual screen Surface Duo (Image source: Microsoft) I like to think that I'm riding the crest of the technology wave, but every now and then something slips past my eagle eye and then leaps out to surprise me when I least expect it. Such was the case when I ran across the fact that Microsoft is planning on rolling out a fabulous folding smartphone called the Surface Duo in 2020. We will return to this in a moment...